I have been reading on-line about working with Tempo settings in MIDI, and it is very confusing! I think most of what I read is about working with tempo on Songs (MIDI Sequences). I'm wondering if anyone knows a simple MIDI command string that will just SET the tempo on a keyboard (the style player) to a specified value. I have looked in the Tyros5 Data List and can't seem to find such a command ...

Thanks!
Jim

With some help from Robert at Yamaha (who gave me the 'raw' syntax of the MIDI Tempo command), and things I found at various sites, I found a solution to what I wanted to do here. It was a bit tricky, as MIDI tempo is not as simple as I had hoped it would be! :-)

Thanks to those before me for some of the details about how MIDI Tempo works, some formulas, etc. After a lot of experimentation, I got things to work.
I'm sharing my results via the attached PDF (From Excel) file, which has more details.

I used the syntax give to me by Yamaha for Sys-Ex for MIDI Tempo Control (F0 43 7E 01 t4 t3 t2 t1 F7) (see page 96 of Data List),
and the formulas I found online, then experimented 'til I seemed to get it working OK. Once I got it working, turns out it was easy to
let Excel do the math, and the Decimal-to-Hex conversions for me (via formulas I put in my Excel file.

Even though I talk about Tyros5 here, it's likely this will work for many other Yamaha keyboards too!

I could not attach the actual Excel file (not allowed), so I made a PDF from it. If anyone wants the actual Excel file (with the math / calculations / conversions) I can email it to you.

I hope that this is helpful to someone!
-Jim

Thanks Jim for all your work and posted information regarding tempo change commands on the Tyros 5. Great reference material.

Marcus

Thanks Jim...very handy stuff indeed.

Ian

Hi Jim

I do not fully understand the question, as the sequence tempo (Including Start/Stop) is controlled via the Midi Clock and is stored automatically in the Midi file header when you save it. (This is why when you load in a Midi file the tempo is always set)

The only time you need to worry about it, is when you are using multiple sequences, as you have to choose which provides master control. (It has been part of the Midi spec since it came out in 1983, so is as common as note on/off)

NOTE: if it is just a tempo commands you wish to send (For a style perhaps) then just turn off the other Midi commands. (This will also be stored in the Midi file when saved) Unless Yamaha has its own unique commands, it will work with any Midi based equipment. (A style is just made up of Midi loops)

If you are still not sure, this Midi Basics article should help Midi Basics (Link is to part 2 however it is worthwhile reading all of it if you want to fully understand Midi)

Hope this helps

Bill

What I had asked about, and wanted to do, was somewhat different. I am not using any Sequences. I just wanted to have a MIDI command that sets the Tempo of the keyboard, (along with my MIDI commands that recall a specific Registration for me), so that when I start playing the song, the keyboard is a the tempo that I want.

The reason is that I have say ~500 registrations, for nearly 500 songs. I have recently started "Re-using" the Registrations, for songs other than the ones I originally created them for. The reason is that I have another ~700 songs that I play, for which I have no registration. Rather than create 700 more registrations, I thought that I could (in many cases) use an existing registration that is "close enough", but maybe I need to change to tempo a bit.

Specific example: I have a Registration for "All Of Me", and it's at tempo 120 (I think). I want to play song "Basin Street Blues" - but I have no Registration created for "Basic Street Blues". I found that my "All of Me" registration happens to work pretty well for "Basic Street Blues", but I want the tempo to be 110 instead of 120. So, when I call up "Basin Street Blues" on my iPad, I have my app (unrealBook) send the MIDI commands to call up the "All of Me" registration, then immediately change the tempo of the keyboard to 110. Then, I just play the song (no sequences, just playing it live).

Multiply this times several hundred more songs, and "Re-use" of Registrations seems quicker than creating hundreds more Registrations. Not true for ALL songs, but I find that 90% of the time, when I working with one of the ~700 songs for which I have no Registration, one of my existing ~500 Registrations can be found that works pretty well for a given song for which I have no registration.

Hope this helps explain why I wanted to change Tempo, outside of what MIDI clock does with sequences etc.

Jim

To add more clarification, there are no MIDI files involved in what I'm doing.

1) When I call up "All Of Me" on my iPad, my iPad (unrealBook app) sends few few MIDI bytes to recall the "All Of Me" registration on my Tyros. I'm ready to play the song.

2) When I call up "Basin Street Blues" on my iPad app, it sends the MIDI bytes to recall the "All Of Me" registration, then sends a few more bytes to set the keyboard's tempo to 110. I'm ready to play "Basin Street Blues".

No MIDI files involved . . .

-Jim